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Alike in ignorance, his reafon fuch,

Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of Thought and Paffion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd ;
Created half to rife, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:
The glory, jeft, and riddle of the world!

VARIATIONS.

After 18. in the MS.

For more perfection than this state can bear
In vain we figh, Heav'n made us as we are.

NOTES.

15

VER. 11. Alike in ignorance, &c.] i. e. The proper fphere of his Reason is fo narrow, and the exercise of it so nice, that the too immoderate use of it is attended with the same ignorance that proceeds from the not using it at all. Yet, tho' in both these cafes, he is abused by himself, he has it ftill in his own power to difabufe himself, in making his paffions fubfervient to the means, and regulating his Reafon by the end of Life.

VER. 12. Whether he thinks too little, or too much :] This is fo true, that ignorance arifes as well from pufhing our enquiries too far, as from not carrying them far enough, that we may obferve, when Speculations, even in Science, are carried beyond a certain point; that point, where use is reasonably suppofed to end, and mere curiofity to begin; they conclude in the most extravagant and fenfelefs inferences; fuch as the unreality of matter; the reality of space; the fervility of the Will, &c. The reafon of this fudden fall out of full light into utter darkness appears not to refult from the natural condition of things, but to be the arbitrary decree of infinite wisdom and goodness, which impofed a barrier to the extravagances of its giddy lawless creature, always inclined to purfue truths of lefs importance too far, to the neglect of thofe more neceffary for his improvement in his ftation here.

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Go, wond'rous creature! mount where Science

guides,

19

Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;

VARIATIONS.

As wifely fure a modest Ape might aim
To be like Man, whofe faculties and frame
He fees, he feels, as you or I to be

An Angel thing we neither know nor fee.
Observe how near he edges on our race;
What human tricks! how rifible of face!
It must be fo-why elfe have I the sense
Of more than monkey charms and excellence ?
Why elfe to walk on two so oft essay'd?
And why this ardent longing for a maid?
So Pug might plead, and call his Gods unkind
Till fet on end and married to his mind.

NOTES.

VER. 17. Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd :] Some have imagined that the author, by, in endless error hurl'd, meant, caft into endless error, or into the regions of endless error, and therefore have taken notice of it as an incongruity of fpeech. But they neither understood the poet's language, nor his sense: to hurl and caft are not fynonymous; but related only genus and fpecies; for to hurl fignifies, not fimply to cat, but to caft backward and forward, and is taken from the rural game called hurling. So that, into endless error hurl'd, as these critics would have it, would have been a barbarism. His words therefore fignify, toffed about in endless error; and this he intended they should fignify, as appears from the antithefis, fole judge of truth. So that the fenfe of the whole is," Tho', as "fole judge of truth, he is now fixed and ftable; yet, as in"volved in endless error, he is now again burl'd, or toffed up "and down in it." This fhews us how cautious we ought to be in cenfuring the expreffions of a writer, one of whofe characteristic qualities was correctness of expreffion and propriety of fentiment.

VER. 20. Go, measure earth, &c.] Alluding to the noble

Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;
Go, foar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, firft perfect, and first fair
Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod,
And quitting fenfe call imitating God;
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the Sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule-
Then drop into thyfelf, and be a fool!

VARIATIONS.

;

Go, reasoning Thing! affume the Doctor's chair,

As Plato deep, as Seneca fevere :

Fix moral fitness, and to God give rule,

Then drop into thyself, &c.—

VER. 21. Ed. 4th and 5th.

Show by what rules the wand'ring planets stray,
Correct old Time, and teach the Sun his Way.

NOTES.

25

30

and useful project of the modern Mathematicians, to measure a degree at the equator and the polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of the earth; of great importance to astronomy and navigation.

VER. 22. Correct old Time,] This alludes to Sir Ifaac Newton's Grecian Chronology, which he reformed on those two fublime conceptions, the difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men; and the pofition of the colures of the equinoxes and folftices at the time of the Argonau→ tic expedition.

VER. 29, 30. Go, teach Eternal Wisdom, &c.] These two lines are a conclufion from all that had been faid om 18, to this effect: Go now, vain Man, elated

Superior beings, when of late they faw
A mortal Man unfold all Nature's law,
Admir'd fuch wisdom in an earthly shape,
And fhew'd a NEWTON as we fhew an Ape.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 31. Superior beings, &c.] To give this fecond argument its full force, he illuftrates it (from 30 to 43) by the nobleft example that ever was in fcience, the incomparable NEWTON; who, although he penetrated so far beyond others into the works of God, yet could go no further in the knowledge of his own nature than the generality of his fellows. Of which the poet affigns this very juft and adequate reason: In all other fciences the Understanding is unchecked and uncontrouled by any opposite principle; but in the science of Man, the Paffions overturn as fast as Reason can build up.

NOTES.

with thy acquirements in real fcience, and imaginary intimacy with God; go, and run into all the extravagancies I have exploded in the first epistle, where thou pretendeft to teach Providence how to govern; then drop into the obfcurities of thy own nature, and thereby manifeft thy ignorance and folly.

VER. 31. Superior beings, &c.] In thefe lines he speaks to this effect: But to make you fully fenfible of the difficulty of this study, I shall instance in the great Newton himself; whom, when fuperior beings, not long fince, faw capable of unfolding the whole law of Nature, they were in doubt whether the owner of fuch prodigious fagacity fhould not be reckoned of their own order; just as men, when they see the surprizing marks of Reason in an Ape, are almost tempted to rank him with their own kind. And yet this wondrous Man could go no further in the knowledge of himself than the generality of his fpecies. In which we fee it was not Mr. Pope's intention to bring any of the Ape's qualities, but its fagacity, into the comparison. But why the Ape's, it may be faid, rather than the fagacity of fome more decent animal, particularly the half-reafoning elephant, as the poet calls it; which, as

Could he, whofe rules the rapid Comet bind, Describe or fix one movement of his Mind?

Who faw its fires here rife, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning, or his end?

VER. 35. Ed. Ift.

VARIATION S.

Could he, who taught each Planet where to roll,
Defcribe or fix one movement of the Soul?
Who mark'd their points to rife or to defcend,
Explain his own beginning or his end?

NOTES.

36

well on account of this its fuperiority, as for its having no ridiculous fide, like the Ape, on which it could be viewed, seems better to have deserved this honour? I reply, Because, as none but a fhape refembling human, accompanied with great fagacity, could occafion the doubt of that animal's relation to Man, the Ape only having that refemblance, no other animal was fitted for the comparifon. And on this ground of relation the whole beauty of the thought depends; Newton and those fuperior fpirits being equally framed for immortality, though of different orders. And here let me take notice of a new fpecies of the Sublime, of which our poet may be justly said to be the maker; fo new, that we have yet no name for it, though of a nature diftinct from every other poetical excellence. The two great perfections of works of genius are Wit and Sublimity. Many writers have been witty, feveral have been fublime, and fome few have even poffeffed both thefe qualities feparately; but none that I know of, befides our Poet, hath had the art to incorporate them; of which he hath given many examples, both in this Effay and his other poems, one of the nobleft being the paffage in queftion. This feems to be the laft effort of the imagination, to poetical perfection: and in this compounded excellence the Wit receives a dignity from the Sublime, and the Sublime a Splendor from the Wit; which, in their state of feparate exiftence, they both wanted.

VER. 37. Who faw its fires bere rife, &c.] Sir Ifaac New

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